Not Safe For Words

Spring came early in Michigan, and with it my Writing Season ended early, and Yardening Season began. Now, in Mid-August I'm beginning to run out of steam, and while there is much still to be done, and several months of lawn mowing to keep up with, I was drawn back to my keyboard for a night inside the A/C, rather than playing outside.

One of the major projects we started this Spring (but are nowhere near finished) was the reclamation of the Western property line. Our home, which we were blessed to purchase in 2021, had been sitting empty for 5 years before we moved in. And in that 5 years the wooded county drainage ditch park we share a property line with had done a stellar job of trying to eat our yard! An area about 65 feet long x 30 feet wide had been lost to trees, poison ivy, wild grape vine, Virginia creeper, and multiflora roses.

So I'm taking it back! The trees we're taking out are all scrubby young Catalpa, and while very pretty, they are aggressive spreaders. I'm keeping 3-5 of the more mature catalpa, but I don't need the 50+ that are crowding the edges of the yard.

2/25/2024
We started the project in late February, but in my eagerness to get started, I didn't take a single before or after picture of the 20x30 foot section we managed to clear on the first weekend.

3/2/2024
The second weekend we moved all of our loose fieldstone into a pile, and cleared a bit more towards the brush pile. The horizon is due West in this picture.


3/17/24
This weekend we cleared another 10x10 foot section of trees and brush, and sorted the rock pile into colors. I then used the largest and bluest stones to make the base row for the Tear Drop garden bed.





4/6/2024
I received three free native trees this weekend, and made a bed for the Butternut in the newly dubbed Forest Garden. You can't really see the baby tree in this pic, as its essentially a leafless stick, but August update - its doing great!


5/13/2024
Happy Belated Beltane! The world has exploded with vibrant green life, and I've added the second layer of stone to the Tear Drop bed and filled it with soil.


5/19/2024 (CW: Discussion of pets that have passed)
This weekend the Husbando and I buried our lost furchildren in the Tear Drop bed, and planted a special plant over each. We'd lived for so long in apartments, and I never felt comfortable burying the cremains in those locations, so they moved with us each time until we had a place I felt comfortable releasing them into. The plants are White Bleeding Heart, Red Bleeding Heart, and white/purple speckled Hellebore.





6/3/2024
This weekend was the final destruction we did for this year. We got about 1/3rd of the land cleared we intend to, and will pick it back up in the winter. I also created another garden bed, this one deeper in the shade, and I used it to encompass some native Jack-in-the-Pulpit that was already growing in the area. From this view the horizon is due East, and you can see the Offering Stone in its temporary location, the fire pit, and the back of our house in the distance.


6/10/2024
Final work on the Forest Garden for 2024 - I added to the Native Plants bed. In the upper left corner I added Great White Trillium, in the upper right is the existing Jack-in-the-Pulpit, in the lower left I planted Wood Poppy, and in the lower right I put the roots of Dutchman's Breeches. We'll see what comes back next spring!